Preserved Topic: marble/spackle effect

I'm wanting to use the marble/spackle effect shown on pages 8 & 23 of the book "The Best of Brochure Design II." I couldn't find the design on the web to reference, but if you have this book, any advice would be appreciated.

The marble effect on the outer layout I can probably simulate, but the colored spackle effect has been difficult for me to figure out.

For those who don't have the book to see the sample: About five different colors are splattered as if a paintbrush was flipped at a gray background.

hm.

add some monochromatic noise, gaussian blur it, not too much though, then adjust the threshold so that there are some small drops left, give them a little guassian blur, adjust the levels to smoothness, select transparency, fill with whatever color, do it again for each color.

goodbye.